Fundamentals of Figure Painting

One of the most common difficulties for beginning and intermediate painters is finishing a painting. Starting a painting is simple enough, but understanding how to organize that start into a coherent, finished illusion of reality is the most difficult aspect of naturalistic painting. This class will teach you a step by step procedure to methodically navigate through a full figure painting. We start with a precise line drawing, then transfer it to a toned canvas, and lastly finish part by part, moving top to bottom in a process referred to as “window shading” by the 19th century masters. Having some familiarity with life drawing is recommended as a prerequisite for this class, although you don’t need to have painted before.

• Week 1: Drawing & Transferring
• Week 2: Color Mixing & Portrait Painting
• Week 3: Rendering the Torso & Arms
• Week 4: Finishing the Lower Body

• 18x24 inch canvas
• 18x24 inch sheet of paper
• 2b graphite pencil
• medium vine charcoal
• kneaded eraser
• variety of sizes of hog bristle filbert brushes
• variety of sizes of synthetic or sable filbert brushes and one small round brush
• paper towels
• linseed oil
• medium cup
• brush cleaning soap (I use a bar of regular ivory soap)
• oil paint (I use all Gamblin professional grade and I'm not picky about the exact colors but I use Titanium White, Cadmium Yellow Light, Cadmium Red Light, Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine Blue, and Ivory Black).
• raw umber acrylic paint